Korean green tea

Looking for some new Korean green teas. I buy a lot of mine from either goodgreentea.com that comes from the Ssangkye tea company or Hankook teas directly from hankooktea.com, I really enjoy their Gamnong green tea. Would like to try something new, preferably a good ujeon or sejak if anyone has any recommendations.

I hate to say this, but let me just say I can sympathize with you on this, if you do not speak Korean, it is still quite hard to get a hold of Korean Teas. Good Green Tea also carries some Jukro Tea's, to date the Jukro Oojeon was potentially the single best tea I have had, though I am not sure good Green Tea carries it... I happened to get a sample more by chance than anything else. I also found the other Jurko teas to be quite interesting.

I have wanted to give o'sulloc a try, for awhile they sort of promised the ability to sell to US speakers, but I was quite leery as to complete check out they wanted you to install a special program on your computer which I had never heard of to facilitate payment. I do not know if that is still required.

FWIW, my good friend Amy, who has been tea-ing longer than I have, really thinks a lot of the guy who runs Good Green Tea. I think she said he's a radiologist and devoted husband and father most of the time who runs the tea business to make his parents in Korea happy. I know she likes his tea; regardless, at least they're here in the States and the site's in English.Incidentally, Shan Shui always has some Korean stuff but they're extremely expensive.

Zach wrote:Looking for some new Korean green teas. I buy a lot of mine from either goodgreentea.com that comes from the Ssangkye tea company or Hankook teas directly from hankooktea.com, I really enjoy their Gamnong green tea. Would like to try something new, preferably a good ujeon or sejak if anyone has any recommendations.

Mattchas blog mentions Dao Tea as a source for good Korean teas. The owner Pedro, goes to Korea and buys from the farms. I know some of the teas that he carries as I've met the teamasters of those farms in Korea. The one particular tea that he used to carry was called Sunrise tea and it is a balhyocha which is not green but an oxidized tea with a bit of aging. It is a tea unlike no other and my favorite of all Korean teas. They also make some high grade ujeon and sejak teas. In fact, there are many farms you can buy direct from but navigating the websites is not easy. Darjeeling.cz is another tea seller who carries good teas and is in Czech Rep.

Generally speaking, the teas I've had from Hankook don't matchup well with teas from the Hadong area, Korea's premier tea growing region. In all fairness, I have not had all the Hankook offerings so there may be some surprises from them. However, O'Sullock has never impressed me. They are very good marketers, lots of money, beautiful stores and packaging. Average teas. It's the small farmers making tea by hand that you want to try to buy. For Korean Tea, Mattchas blog is a goldmine of info.

Tead Off wrote:Mattchas blog mentions Dao Tea as a source for good Korean teas. The owner Pedro, goes to Korea and buys from the farms. I know some of the teas that he carries as I've met the teamasters of those farms in Korea. The one particular tea that he used to carry was called Sunrise tea and it is a balhyocha which is not green but an oxidized tea with a bit of aging. It is a tea unlike no other and my favorite of all Korean teas.

I'm guessing this is different to the balhyocha they currently have in stock from the same farm?

Adam, I've found it difficult as well in terms of selection as I've only narrowed it down to a couple of websites that sell these particular teas from that region of the world so far. I didnt see the Jukro Ujeon for sale so I think I'm going to give the Jukro Sejak a try, the person writing the review speaks highly of it as well. The guy who runs GoodGreenTea definetely gets an A+ in the customer service department to me, he ships ridiculously fast, shipping is free and he includes free items all the time. Teadoff I appreciate the info on Matcha's blog, definetely going to look into it, and I've heard awesome things about the teamasters who produce for Pedro over at Dao Tea. I do enjoy balhyocha very much, is the one youre talking about available right now? cause I couldnt find it on their site. Appreciate all the info everyone.

Tead Off wrote:Mattchas blog mentions Dao Tea as a source for good Korean teas. The owner Pedro, goes to Korea and buys from the farms. I know some of the teas that he carries as I've met the teamasters of those farms in Korea. The one particular tea that he used to carry was called Sunrise tea and it is a balhyocha which is not green but an oxidized tea with a bit of aging. It is a tea unlike no other and my favorite of all Korean teas.

I'm guessing this is different to the balhyocha they currently have in stock from the same farm?

I haven't gone to their site, but there are 2 balhychas from this farm. One is Sunrise, the other is Sunset. Sunrise is more expensive and fuller tasting. None of these teas are particularly inexpensive. All handmade and organic.

Tead Off wrote:The one particular tea that he used to carry was called Sunrise tea and it is a balhyocha which is not green but an oxidized tea with a bit of aging. It is a tea unlike no other and my favorite of all Korean teas.

MacGuffin wrote:I'm guessing this is different to the balhyocha they currently have in stock from the same farm?

Tead Off wrote:I haven't gone to their site, but there are 2 balhychas from this farm. One is Sunrise, the other is Sunset. Sunrise is more expensive and fuller tasting. None of these teas are particularly inexpensive. All handmade and organic.

Thanks for your response. At present, Tao Tea has two balhyochas is stock from two different sources, one of whom is Kim Jong Yeol. Both are just referred to as "balhyocha," so it's unclear whether or not his is Sunrise. And you're right--neither is cheap.

Zach wrote:Looking for some new Korean green teas. I buy a lot of mine from either goodgreentea.com that comes from the Ssangkye tea company or Hankook teas directly from hankooktea.com, I really enjoy their Gamnong green tea. Would like to try something new, preferably a good ujeon or sejak if anyone has any recommendations.

Generally speaking, the teas I've had from Hankook don't matchup well with teas from the Hadong area,

+1My uncle often brought my family to Ssang-ge temple in Hadong when I was young, who now is an ordained monk. And the tea they had..umm.

Too bad Korean teas are not cheap, I think Jeju island is a hope in Korean tea business and expanding farms.

Zach wrote:Looking for some new Korean green teas. I buy a lot of mine from either goodgreentea.com that comes from the Ssangkye tea company or Hankook teas directly from hankooktea.com, I really enjoy their Gamnong green tea. Would like to try something new, preferably a good ujeon or sejak if anyone has any recommendations.

Generally speaking, the teas I've had from Hankook don't matchup well with teas from the Hadong area,

+1My uncle often brought my family to Ssang-ge temple in Hadong when I was young, who now is an ordained monk. And the tea they had..umm.

Too bad Korean teas are not cheap, I think Jeju island is a hope in Korean tea business and expanding farms.

I mentioned them a few posts back. They're awfully expensive (not that Korean tea is ever cheap). My friend Amy had some Woojeon Hongcha Goryeo she'd bought from them previously that she loved, bought it again (Brian, the owner, told her it was pretty consistent year to year), and termed it "an expensive disappointment." Fortunately, she'd only bought the 10g sample but it was $16. FWIW I've bought baozhong from them in the past and was happy with my purchases.